


Unbreakable

by SkiaWolf



Series: Christmas 2017 [2]
Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Past Character Death, numerous height jokes from you know who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 05:04:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12880752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkiaWolf/pseuds/SkiaWolf
Summary: In which Sorey shows just how much he can think of anything to cheer Mikleo up, especially during a time which means the world to him.





	Unbreakable

**Author's Note:**

> It's such an honour (as well as nerve-wrecking) to be the one to start this event off! Thank you to Maren for asking me if I wanted this day, it truly means a lot.
> 
> The raffled prompt I was given was 'Decorations'. Hopefully you enjoy what I came up with!

Snow drifted down gently from the sky. It was the perfect sign that it was now the first of December, with frost shimmering under rays of sunlight shining down on it. Winter was in its process of arriving where the air was chilly yet not strong, and the snow was not yet heavy enough to create a vast blanket on the ground.

Sorey and Mikleo, an engaged couple living in the peace of the countryside, had not spent a lot of their day outside in this weather, however. As this would be their first Christmas together in this home, neither could resist putting up the decorations as soon as December had arrived, even if Mikleo had tried to hide his excitement a little more than Sorey.

Unable to reach up to it himself, Mikleo watched with a small smile as Sorey stretched silvery tinsel across the door frame leading into their apartment. He then hung a wreath onto it, carefully shifting it until it was in the perfect place.

“Does that look like it's in centre to you?” Sorey asked, stepping back to inspect it from the distance, holding onto his chin with his hand.

“Yeah, I would say so.” Mikleo's eyes glanced around the room, taking in the tinsel which had also been spread across the mantelpiece, as well as the blue and white lights which were trailing across furniture. Their dining table had also been spread with a red tablecloth, embroidered with gold thread and a holly design across the edges. Despite how small their home was, it was certainly still large enough to be decorated to their liking. “Shall we put up the tree, then?” Mikleo then asked, Sorey nodding in response.

“Yup, let's do it! Or … let me do it, being as you're too small.”

“Shut it, you.”

Sorey simply grinned, beginning to take the fake green branches out of a box placed to one side. Meanwhile, Mikleo began to fix the base, keeping hold of it until it was prepared. He glanced at Sorey, whose grin returned as he said, “You can do the lower branches so you don't have to strain yourself.”

“One more height joke and I'm moving in with Lailah for Christmas.” Regardless, even if he did so with a roll of his eyes, Mikleo began to fix the lower branches into place. After Sorey inserted the upper branches, the two spread them out, allowing the tree to form its proper shape.

“There we are! Want to continue the icy theme we have going on?” Sorey asked.

“Absolutely. Red and green gets pretty tacky.”

“Yet we have a green tree.”

“… Let's get a white one next year.”

Sorey chuckled, pulling out a strip of tinsel. “If that's what you want.”

The tinsel was wrapped around the top to the base of the tree. Following this came the baubles; thin strips of string were held between their fingers as the blue, silver and gold ornaments were carefully dangled on the branches. Small fake icicles were also placed in between them by Mikleo, who Sorey watched with a fond smile over how much he seemed to be enjoying himself.

“There we are,” Sorey said as Mikleo placed the last icicle onto the tree. “It's not too overdone, yet it's pretty, too! Now we just need the fairy.”

Mikleo nodded, feeling an emotion rise in his chest which he was not sure was happiness or sadness. After all, what Sorey spoke of was the beautiful glass ornament which had once belonged to Mikleo's mother, Muse. The two had always decorated the tree together with Michael, her brother, finishing every time with this ornament. The Christmas season had always been a special time of year for the small family.

One year, Muse had not been able to make it to Christmas. Terminal illness took her life before she had a chance to experience the day she loved one last time. This glass ornament, the one which Mikleo had watched been placed upon the tree every year of his life, was one of the most important keepsakes he had of her. It was hardly expensive, yet held more value than anything with a high price tag.

“I think I left the box in the garage,” said Mikleo. “Mind if we go get it?”

“Of course not, let's go!”

The two lived in a rather small bungalow, which was comfortable and perfect for the two of them. The rent was a little more expensive than it would be with an apartment, but the benefits that this home brought was worth the extra cost. Outside it was a garage where there were still a few leftover boxes of miscellaneous items from when they first moved in. With their small space, they were still figuring out where they could possibly store things.

“So which one is it?” Sorey asked as he entered the garage, switching the light on.

“Should be in the right hand corner.”

He raised an eyebrow when Mikleo's voice spoke further away than expected, turning to see that he was hovering in the cold outside. “You're nervous about spiders being in here, aren't you?”

“No.”

“Sure you aren't,” Sorey chuckled, taking a glance around the room. “It's clean, you know. So there's not going to be any in here.”

Still a little uncertain, Mikleo hesitated before walking in after Sorey.

“… Except that one right there.”

Mikleo let out a shriek, jumping closer to Sorey and clutching his arm tightly, eyes darting around the room. When he saw that there was in fact nothing, he shot a glare at Sorey and huffed.

“That was unnecessary,” he said, removing himself from Sorey's arm and stormed towards the box he had spoke of previously. Sorey was laughing as he followed.

“Sorry, it's too funny to tease! Well, not as much as puppies, but close.”

Mikleo chose to ignore him. Lowering down to his knees, his hands reached for the box, bringing it closer to him. He opened each side of the cardboard and began shuffling through the contents.

“It's definitely in this one, I'm sure it …”

His words trailed off. Confused, Sorey crouched down on the floor next to him, concern rising when he saw Mikleo's widened eyes and shocked expression.

“Mikleo, what's wrong?”

“How did this happen?” Mikleo questioned, his voice barely above a whisper. He pulled out a much smaller box stored inside, his hands trembling slightly. Sorey inhaled sharply when he saw what was causing this reaction. The opened flaps of the box revealed that the ornament that Mikleo had cherished dearly for as long as he could remembered was shattered into dozens of shards of glass.

“I'm sorry, Mikleo,” Sorey said quietly, putting his hand on Mikleo's shoulder, willing for words to come from him. But when he thought about how much of a sentiment this was to Mikleo, he found difficulty in finding anything which could comfort him.

“I swear I stored it properly, I really did. So how did it break?” He sniffed, one hand hurriedly wiping at his eyes before tears fell. “I'm sorry, this is silly of me. It's just …”

“It's not silly at all. I know how much it means to you, so of course you're going to be upset.” Wanting to comfort Mikleo properly, the hand on his shoulder instead stretched out so his arm could wrap around Mikleo's shoulder. His hand stroked Mikleo's arm in gentle, circular motions. “Do you think we might be able to fix it?”

“I don't think so. I mean, look how many shards there are.” He lifted up one of these fragments. As he did so, he could feel anger rise in his chest, purely aimed at himself. “I should have been more careful. Even as a child, I never once got close to this happening, because I knew how much it meant to her.”

“Blaming yourself won't help with anything, love. It'll only make you be more upset.” Sorey planted a kiss on the side of Mikleo's head. “We'll keep the shards anyway, okay? We don't have to throw them away. And we can still have a good Christmas together.”

Mikleo hummed. It was clear that he was not completely listening, and Sorey could not blame him. After all, he was so overcome by sadness and frustration over himself that it was understandable for him to not quite be able to listen to words.

All Sorey could do for a moment was bring Mikleo a little closer, placing another kiss on the side of his head. He stayed silent when he could feel Mikleo's body shake from a couple of sobs, clearly unable to hold back all of his tears, as Sorey knew that at this point, Mikleo would rather them not be addressed. After a little time, Sorey could feel his body begin to relax, slowly returning back to normal.

“I'm sorry,” he said, forcing out a humourless chuckle. “I really shouldn't be crying over some glass.”

“I'd do the same if this had belonged to _my_ mother. It's all right.” Now that Mikleo was a little calmer, Sorey was able to think clearer himself. Inspiration was seeming to hit him, and after thinking over the idea which had popped into his head, he was soon grinning down at Mikleo. “Hey, it's not all lost, you know.”

Mikleo peered back up at him, a puzzled expression on his face. “What do you mean?”

“Why don't we use these fragments to create something? That way, even if we don't have the old decoration, we can still take what once made it and turn it into something new.”

Pondering over this, Mikleo's eyes diverted back to the box, his thumbs rubbing on the side of it. He sounded a little brighter when he spoke. “That's … actually a really good idea. I didn't think of that in my panic. But what do you have in mind?”

“Hmm … I think we actually have a few things we can use for this, considering we already made a few decorations. Ah! I know what we could do! But one question … would you be fine crushing up the glass more, so the fragments are smaller?”

“Well …” Mikleo pursed his lips as his eyes scanned the shards. “It's already broken and unrecognisable, so I don't think breaking it up more would be a problem.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it's fine.”

“Brilliant! All right, let's see. I'm sure I have a hammer in here somewhere …” He began to search through one of the other boxes. Several had been left here from decorating, and he was certain that everything was there. “Yup, here it is!”

He brought out a small hammer. Mikleo handed the small box filled with glass over to him, who looked at Mikleo's eyes for once last confirmation that he was fine to do this.

“Might want to cover your ears, this is going to get loud.”

Mikleo nodded. Holding his hands over them, he watched as Sorey waited before he began to break up the shards into smaller pieces. A small pang of sadness went through Mikleo over seeing the glass be destroyed further, yet he mostly found himself beginning to feel excited over whatever Sorey was planning.

“Right, there we go!” he exclaimed upon finishing. He placed the hammer down to one side. “Now, what we need is a couple of glass containers. I'm _sure_ we have some left over …”

He continued his search through the box, moving onto another when he found himself successful. Moments later, he let out a cheer as he pulled out the containers he had been looking for; both were made of glass and were lidded.

“You're not going to tell me what you're doing, are you?” Mikleo asked as he watched Sorey placed the containers down onto the floor and began to remove the lids.

“Nope! Because if I do, then this performance isn't going to be as entertaining for you.”

“Performance? I doubt you're getting _that_ creative.”

Sorey looked up at Mikleo and warmly smiled. “Either way, you finally smiled again, and that's what I was hoping for.”

Mikleo's eyebrows raised a little as he held a hand to his mouth. He had not noticed any smile at all form on his face. Feeling his heart grow warm, he settled back and continued to watch Sorey's movements.

“So what now?” he questioned.

“Now I put the glass in.”

Sorey picked up the small box and carefully divided the glass equally into the two containers. Surprisingly enough, this alone looked rather pretty and was much more preferable to seeing the crushed glass within the box. Yet it was clear that Sorey was not finished as after he had finished pouring in the glass, he was reaching back over to one of the larger boxes.

“And then this …”

He pulled out two votive candle holders – Mikleo could easily remember how the two had bought far too many and stored the rest away. Following placing each of them carefully into the containers, Sorey pulled out two last things; a pair of LED candles, one turquoise and one a darker blue.

“Now, I know you weren't fond of me getting these –”

“That's because they're tacky.”

“ _But_ you can trust me with this. Switch them on and put them in, then put the lids back on!”

Glancing at Sorey for a moment, Mikleo took the candles from him and after switching both on, steadily placed them inside and secured the lids back onto the containers. He lifted each up in one hand. He definitely had to give Sorey credit for this; the lights were shining beautifully through the glass, and any tackiness he previously thought the candles held was non existent now.

“That really is pretty,” Mikleo said, inspecting each container from different angles. He watched curiously as Sorey got to his feet.

“It'll look even better in the dark!” he said, making his way over to the light switch on the wall. Once the lights were turned off, Mikleo could not stop his eyes from widening in astonishment. Amongst darkness, the lights became brighter and clearer, reflected beautifully in the dozens of shards.

“This is beautiful,” Mikleo said almost breathlessly, staring at the containers until his gaze shifted to Sorey as he sat back down. “What made you think of this?”

“I looked up ways to use broken glass ages ago. I knew we had a lot of leftover stuff, and this was probably the easiest way to do it.” He took the dark blue votive from Mikleo, smiling. “I know it's a lot different to how it once was. But does this help even a little bit?”

Mikleo's answer was to shuffle forward and press his lips gently against Sorey's, careful not to drop the container in his hand. He pulled back after a few moments, his jawline and cheeks highlighted from the turquoise light. “It helps a lot. It was so thoughtful of you to do something like this rather than just throw them away.”

“I couldn't do that. I know how much it meant to you. And if there was a way to keep all that glass, then …”

“You really are a good person. Not everyone would bother or take it so seriously.”

“Well, I'm not everyone.”

Mikleo smiled, pressing a kiss to Sorey's cheek. “I've known that for a long time.”

“Someone's being cheesy,” Sorey grinned, before he shuffled through the box the broken decoration had been stored in. “Right, we _do_ need something for the tree … Ah! Here's my old star. Might not be as pretty, but it should work, right?”

Mikleo nodded as his eyes landed on the gold decoration. “Yeah, that's fine. Let's go do that. And, uh, sorry for that whole crying earlier.”

“You never have to apologise for anything like that, silly.”

The two made their way out of the garage and back towards the bungalow. Mikleo hummed in thought once they were back inside the living room, looking at the container in his hand before glancing around the room, trying to decide where to place them.

“I think it'd be nice to have them with the Christmas decorations … How about either side of the television?”

“Sounds good to me!”

It truly was a good choice; both of the containers fitted wonderfully, their lights still gorgeous even inside a well lit room. For a moment, Mikleo could only stare at them, still feeling immense gratitude for Sorey's efforts. He broke out of his trance to watch Sorey reach up towards the tree.

“Do you need a stepladder?” he asked.

“Nah, I'm not as short as you,” Sorey replied, sticking out his tongue before he was focused back on the tree. “It's not that big, really. Just gotta fix it in place a little more, then … there! It's done!”

Sorey fell back down onto his heels, placing his hands on his hips as he and Mikleo inspected his work. The golden star completed the tree perfectly, and whilst Mikleo still felt a small wish to have the fairy he had always cherished be on top of the tree instead, this was quick to vanish as soon as his eyes flickered to the LED lights.

“I don't think I've ever liked decorations this much,” he said as his eyes inspected the rest of the room, taking in their entire work. “It's come along beautifully.”

“Hey, we've only done the lounge and dining area! We're nowhere near done.”

“You want to decorate the _whole_ of the house?”

“Um yeah, of course! Why, you don't want to? Is it because of the cost?”

Mikleo shook his head. “No, it's cheap enough. I just … I really like that, because I haven't gone all out so much since mother was alive. And to have that be with you …”

“You really do get sentimental over the holidays, don't you?”

He cleared his throat, gaze shifting to the side. “Just … just a little bit. It holds a lot of good memories for me, so I suppose I do secretly adore it.”

Sorey smiled, reaching to Mikleo to pull him into his arms, a hand resting on the back of his head. “I hope that I continue to make good memories around this time of year for you,” he said, his fingers playing with strands of silvery hair. “And every year after this one.” He paused for a moment, another thought coming to his mind. He pulled back from the hug in order to cup Mikleo's face instead. “I have another idea.”

Mikleo looked at him curiously, hands still resting on his chest. “Another one?”

“That's right. Obviously it's too soon to do so this year, but … how would you like to arrange our wedding for this time of year, if it truly means so much to you?”

He stared at Sorey in astonishment. Sometimes, despite the fact that they had already been engaged for three months, he still felt disbelief over the thought of them both marrying each other. The word 'wedding' was one which replayed itself repeatedly in his mind, up until he was filled with a happiness unlike any he had ever felt before.

This occurred again now. Only this time, it somehow managed to hold more meaning than before.

“You really are full of wonderful ideas today, aren't you?” Mikleo asked quietly, smiling as he leaned into Sorey's touch. “I'd love that. I think it'd make our wedding even more meaningful that it would have already been.”

“Glad you agree on that,” said Sorey, his thumb running lightly over Mikleo's cheek. “I really do love you Mikleo, and if there is anything I can do to truly make you feel special, then I will.”

“From LED lights to thoughtful wedding plans,” Mikleo chuckled lightly. “Sounds just like you.”

He closed his eyes as he saw Sorey slowly lean closer towards him, once again bringing their lips together into a kiss. His previous sadness now vanished from his mind completely, he was simply blessed with wondering how Sorey could be as wonderful as he was.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope this was an enjoyable start for you and that you enjoy the rest of the works! Christmas is my favourite holiday too, so I hope to write more for it.


End file.
